03-04-25

ECCLESIOLOGICAL ETCHINGS
March 4, 2025
Tomorrow is Ash Wednesday. Tomorrow is the entry point for the season we refer to as Lent. It is the threshold from where we begin the forty-day journey with Jesus. There is so much to learn along the way, yet it is always difficult to keep fully present in the moment as the shadow of the cross hangs heavy over the entire experience. The journey takes us to Holy Week, including Good Friday, the day of Jesus’ execution upon the cross. How do you walk forward when you know death will be found ahead? The answer is rather simple. We walk the same way people of faith have always walked. Spoiler Alert—Death isn’t merely an event confined to the final days of Holy Week; it’s an inevitable reality that awaits us all. And Ash Wednesday is this rather honest and straightforward declaration that we have come from dust and that we shall return to dust. Yes, we are resurrection people, but resurrection is only found on the other side of death. My sincere hope (and I emphasize that word) is that the Ash Wednesday Service doesn’t dampen our spirits. However, true hope requires acknowledging a challenge, obstacle, source of fear, or anything that disrupts our naïve perception of life. Hope is the faithful act of looking beyond what is thought to be a dead end. When there is no apparent end, then there is no need for hope. In a sense, Ash Wednesday reminds us of how important hope is for all of us.

Prepare us for the journey that is about to commence. Prepare us, Faithful and Holy Guide, as we take those first few steps into a story that foreshadows our own. Amen.